Johnsons fond of time at Texas A&M

Johnsons fond of time at Texas A&M

1of2Alabama head coach Avery Johnson suggests to an official to watch the in house replay to see his player did not commit a foul against LSU in Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Feb. 18, 2027. Alabama defeated LSU 90-72. (Gary Cosby Jr.,/The Tuscaloosa News via AP)Photo: Gary Cosby Jr., MBO / Associated Press

2of2Alabama head coach Avery Johnson communicates with players during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against South Carolina Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, in Columbia, S.C. Alabama defeated South Carolina 90-86. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)Photo: Sean Rayford, FRE / Associated Press

COLLEGE STATION — Avery Johnson Sr. played for six different NBA teams over 16 years, most notably the Spurs, and he also coached two NBA squads over seven seasons. Johnson is an expert in arena homecomings.

“On the NBA level, sometimes when you went back as a coach you had been fired, or as a player you had been traded,” Johnson said this week. “You want to go back and have a great game for different reasons.”

Johnson’s latest gig is a couple of rungs below the top level of the NBA, and he’s never experienced a homecoming like the one he will on Saturday night.

“This is going to be emotional for my wife and me, because Texas A&M really means a lot to us,” he said.

Johnson, Alabama’s second-year coach, never coached at A&M or played for the Aggies. His only son, Avery Johnson Jr., did the latter two seasons ago.

“They gave Avery Jr. a scholarship, and they were one of the first high major programs to step up and believe in him as a Division I player,” Johnson, 51, said. “We spent a year there as parents, and they treated us great.”

Almost two years ago, Alabama hired Johnson, who’d been head coach of the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets, fired from both and the last job wrapping up in 2012. He’s best known in these parts for playing point guard and team leader on the Spurs’ NBA title team in 1999, and coaching the Mavericks to their first NBA Finals in 2006.

Last season A&M played at Alabama, and this year the Crimson Tide (16-11, 9-6) visit Reed Arena for a 7 p.m. tip on Saturday against the Aggies (14-13, 6-9).

“I’ve known Avery since he played at St. Augustine High in New Orleans, and I played at Holy Cross High in the Catholic League,” A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “He’s a friend, and we coached his son and love his son. And (Johnson Jr.) would be playing a lot for us right now, if we had him.”

Indeed he would, considering the Aggies are shy of point guards and Johnson Jr. has played a key role, primarily off the bench, in Alabama’s winning record in SEC play. He scored 23 points in the Crimson Tide’s four-overtime victory at South Carolina on Feb. 7, and has recorded six assists in two different games, along with three steals in two separate games.

“Where he was in his first year (of college) and where he is now — he’s 10 times better in my opinion,” said Tyler Davis, A&M’s center and a former high school and college teammate of Johnson Jr. “He’s much more skilled, with much more confidence.”

Johnson Jr. and Davis played together at Plano West High, and Johnson Jr. played a role in getting an impressive Metroplex foursome of Davis, Admon Gilder, D.J. Hogg and Elijah Thomas to sign with the Aggies, one of the nation’s highest-rated classes of 2014. Thomas has since transferred to Clemson.

Johnson Jr. played sparingly as a true freshman at A&M, and when his father was hired by Alabama, the son headed east to Tuscaloosa, Ala. He sat out last season under NCAA transfer rules, and will face his first college team for the first time.

“We’ve talked about this for a long time,” said Davis, who’s still close to Johnson Jr. “It’s a personal kind of game.”

It’s also important to both teams for different reasons.

“They’re playing to finish in the top four (of the SEC), and we’re playing to not be in the bottom four,” Kennedy said. “That’s reason for both of us to try and get a win.”

The Aggies, who at this point are reaching for a National Invitation Tournament bid, have three regular-season games remaining: against Alabama, at Missouri on Tuesday and at home in one week against Kentucky.

A&M, which lost four senior starters off of last year’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 team, has lost three of its last four games, and is coming off an 86-77 setback at Arkansas on Wednesday. The Crimson Tide are 2-2 over their last four games and are coming off a 60-55 home loss to Georgia on Thursday.

“It’s going to be great going back there,” Johnson Sr. said of heading to College Station, “but at the same time we have a job to do.”

Brent Zwerneman is a staff writer for the Houston Chronicle covering Texas A&M athletics. He is a graduate of Oak Ridge High School and Sam Houston State University, where he played baseball.

Brent is the author of four published books about Texas A&M, three related to A&M athletics. He’s a four-time winner of APSE National Top 10 writing awards for the San Antonio Express-News, including a second-place finish for breaking the Dennis Franchione “secret newsletter” scandal in 2007.

His coverage of Texas A&M’s move to the SEC from the Big 12 also netted a third-place finish nationally in 2012. Brent met his wife, KBTX-TV news anchor Crystal Galny, in the Dixie Chicken before an A&M-Texas Tech football game in 2002, and the couple has three children: Will, Zoe and Brady.